Ellie is Awesome
by KittyHoran
Summary: Katie wakes up. She has no idea where she is or how she got there, and the last thing she remembers is being hit by a lorry. (Summer Loving Part 2)
1. Chapter 1

I sat stark upright, breathing heavily, my mind was rushing, the searing pain which I had had seconds before felt pulsing throughout my body was now nothing more than a dull ache, I felt dizzy and had to prop myself up on an arm, as my vision came into focus I could see I was in a pure white room. I was lying on a white hospital bed, which had been pushed against an equally white wall, this was scary, no one else was here, I was all alone.  
"Hello?" I called, hoping Adrian would pop out from somewhere and yell surprise, but no, there was no response. I swung my legs off the side of the bed only to feet a sharp pain in my forearm, I glanced at it, pulling the sharp needle which was filled with a green liquid from my arm and slipped out of the bed. I fell to the floor with a thud, I looked around again, checking no one was watching before attempting to stand again with no luck, what had happened to me? I couldn't even stand up! Maybe I had been in a coma for ages after the crash and lost the use of my legs, I wondered. Using my arms as a mode of transport I dragged myself over to the door, even the window had frosted white glass, someone here had a serious liking for the color white.

If I was going to reach the door handle which was just out of reach I would have to stand, shuffling around on the floor I started to rub my legs and get some feeling into them, after a while I found I could move my them slightly, although they were not strong enough to support my body,  
"What's the use?" I sigh, these legs are useless, in the corner of my eye, is that? I shuffle a little more, yes! It's a wheelchair, this will be fine, my arms are working perfectly. With some difficulty I manage to haul myself into the, again, white wheel chair and take a deep breath, if I was going to find out what was going on I was going to have to do it alone.

The door opened silently and I wheeled myself out being careful to close it behind me in case someone walked past, you've seen it in all the spy movies, the biggest give away that they've escaped is that the door is wide open. I looked around at the bare walls, these were also plain white, at least the floor was a pale blue. For a hospital this was very empty, you would expect it to be full of sick people and there to be people visiting, but no, silence. There wasn't even any flowers or cards in my room, which was strange, I have loads of people who would be there waiting for me to wake up; Mum, Charlie, Alex, my friends...Adrian would be there. Waiting for me to come back to him.

Behind me I heard footsteps, I quickly turned a circle in the chair and faced the direction the noise was coming from, the footsteps grew louder as a young man dressed in a lab coat and shiny black shoes rounded the corner. He stopped dead, staring me right in the eye, the clipboard which had previously been gripped in his hands was now on the floor. He gasped and pointed to me,  
"You, You..." He mumbled, in shock then grabbed a walkie-talkie clipped onto his belt and brought it to his mouth.  
"She's awake." He whispered, dropping his arm to his side.


	2. Chapter 2

A swarm of people who I presumed to be nurses and doctors rushed around the corner, they too stopped in the middle of the corridor as if there was an invisible wall between us. The man, the one who had told all these other people, the one with the shiny shoes, took two steps forward towards me, his strides were long and he was now quite close, I shied away from him, turning my head slightly but not breaking eye contact. His eyebrows were raised slightly and his mouth was open.  
"Hello." He said, "Can, can you speak?" He asked, I frowned at him, of course I could speak, idiot, I had only been in a coma, I had spoken before!  
"Of course I can speak.." I replied, his voice was, familiar in some way, I knew it but I didn't recognize him. His expression didn't change as he stood motionless, just, staring.

"Look are you going to tell me where I am, and what the hell is going on?!" I demanded, "How long have I been in this coma, and where are my family?" Still no response, the man just blinked, I waved my arm around in front of his face and he seemed to snap out of his trance,  
"Maybe we should leave that for the Prime minister to explain." He mumbled, backing away as if he was scared of me,  
"Please just tell what's going on." I begged, he started chewing his lip and shook his head,  
"No can do." He replied sternly.  
"Goddam it!" I yelled and thrashed out at him, why wouldn't he tell me, what a complete fucking dick-head, I had been in a coma for god knows how long and he wouldn't even tell me why I was here!

"I'm so sorry," He mumbled, backing away, I made a grab for him again but he was just out of my reach, the chair toppled over, taking me with it, I screamed as my shoulder thwacked against the cold, hard floor. I gritted my teeth through the pain, the man had rushed back towards me and now appeared to be deliberating whether or not to help me up, maybe I had some terrible disease passed on by touching the infected person's skin. I presumed not as I felt a pair of arms hook underneath my own, trying to get me to stand. I rolled my eyes,  
"Look, guy, I've already tried it, I can't walk, I don't know what you idiots have done to me but I've lost the use of my legs! I am in the right mind to sue the ass off of you all right now!" I screamed as the man gave up and lowered me back down to the ground, I sat there like a defenseless little toddler as slowly the other people in the corridor began to approach me.

"I'm Charlie." The man said holding out a hand.  
"Katie." I spat in reply, dismissing the hand of the useless man the knelt before me, the man sighed, and I remembered something, or rather someone. "Adrian." I exclaimed, "Where's Adrian?!" The man opened his mouth to speak but stopped as I heard footsteps approaching, they were not dull like the footsteps before, these were loud and clacked as the shoe hit the ground, high heels, I swiveled around, before me stood a poshly dressed woman, tight pinstripe skirt and jacket combo and her hair bounced in tight curls on her shoulders as she walked, her face was heavily made up, pale white face and deep red lipstick, it suited her, she would look like quite a friendly woman if it weren't for the black eye-patch which sat comfortably over one eye, although it was not held on by anything.  
"Welcome to the matrix testing facility." She said coming to a stop and flashing me a toothy smile.


	3. Chapter 3

"So you're telling me that everything I've ever known was a lie, my family, my friends, my teachers, everyone?!" I said shocked at what the lady had just revealed me, basically I was taken at a young age and put in a coma like state to see what happened, I couldn't believe her, my life had seemed so...real. My mind had taken over and created a family and friends for me, giving me enemies and idols. I didn't understand how I could still remember everything from before, the pain, why would you feel the pain if you were in a dream world.  
"Look hunny," She said in her thick American accent, "The mind does strange things." That was the only explanation she could come up with, I rolled my eyes, I decided to use the only evidence that my head hadn't made it all up,  
"Well if no one was real why do I recognize his voice?" I yelled pointing at Charlie, who was sat behind me,  
"What?" I heard him say, "You recognize my voice?" He was shocked at the news, his face showing that he was desperately trying to puzzle it out. "Look ma'am I really need to interview the girl, this is more complicated than I thought." He concluded standing up and taking a step towards me,  
"Ok, but be careful." She replied tilting her head to one side and raising her eyebrows as she said the word careful, he nodded and put a hand on my shoulder, I felt him grab the wheelchair handles and he swung me around before exiting with me.

He walked in silence for about ten minutes before turning down a long corridor and entering a small, carpeted room, Charlie pulled up a chair across from mine and sitting down,  
"Ok, Katie, tell me about yourself," He pulled out a Dictaphone and pressed record,  
"My name is Katie, full name Katherine Josephine Morgan, I am 16 years old and my birthday is 15th of May 1997, I live in Sheffield, England with my two brothers and mother. My brothers are called Charlie and Alex, they are twins and are 24 years old, their birthday is the 8th of December,"  
"Wow, wait," he said stopping me, "Charlie and Alex Morgan, 24 years old and their birthday is the 8th of December?!" He exclaimed,  
"Yes..." I replied, curious as to why he had stopped me talking.  
"My name is Charlie Morgan, I have a non-identical twin called Alex, our birthdays are on the 8th of December and we are 24." My eyes widened,  
"Coincidence?" I suggested, this was freaky,  
"Probably…Hopefully... Anyway carry on." He said a confused look clouded his face, I took a deep breath and continued to talk.  
"My mum's name is Angela Morgan and she is 50 years old. My dad's name is Andrew Morgan and he would be 52 but he died in a car crash when I was 7." I concluded, he looked at me in amazement,  
"My mother's name is Angela, she is 50, my dad's name was Andrew, he would have been 52 but he died in a car crash when I was 16…" he said, this was just bizarre,  
"Why do you have the same family as me?" I asked, frowning, he shrugged then looked at the ground, rubbing his forehead with his free hand.

"I don't know I really don't" He said looking me in the eye, suddenly they widened, "No, no, that couldn't have happened could it?"  
"What?"  
"No!" He covered his mouth,  
"What?!"  
"Well ever since you were little I've always been there in the day, just talking to you, no one really talked me when I was growing up, you were like the best friend I've ever had." He admitted looking up,  
"What did you tell me about?" I asked smiling at him,  
"I just talked about my day and my brother and other stuff that was going on in my life, I didn't think it would matter,"  
"It's ok," I said, "You helped shape my life Charlie! You're my big brother, thank you."  
"Yeah but what's my mum going to say when she finds out I've been telling you about us for the past 12 years?"  
"I was put in there when I was 4?"  
"Yeah, they had to move up the ages, they first tried it with new borns but the liquid they injected in killed them instantly, then 1 year olds but it didn't work properly, you were the first person it worked properly on." He told me,  
"Wait so I could have died! Those people could have killed me?!" I exclaimed, "Oh my god, didn't they run any tests on that shit before pumping it into my body?" I yelled at him, he shied away from me, "And what about my mum, I mean my biological mother, not yours, and my dad, they would have had something to say!" I looked up at the ceiling taking deep breaths to calm me down, Charlie had gone all quiet, like he didn't want to answer my question. "Please." I whispered, his eyes met mine once more and he sighed,  
"Your parents died, when you were 3 months old, they were killed in an explosion, a terrorist bomber, you were taken into care." He mumbled no expression in his voice. I gasped bringing my hand to my mouth as a tear trickled down my face,  
"Are, are they buried somewhere? Can I see them?"  
"No, I am _so_ sorry," I nodded and wiped my wet eyes,  
"Alright, next best thing, are there any recordings or photos of them I can see? Did you know them? What were they like?" I asked desperate to know something of my parents,  
"I'll find you some pictures tomorrow." He said, rubbing his forehead again, I looked up at him then past his shoulder as I saw a clock ticking away, it was 5:03pm I had been with Adrian only two hours before,  
"Charlie, where will I stay?" I said looking around the dimly lit room, "And will it have food, I am starving."  
"I suppose you could stay with my mum, I mean you know my family, and my mum will love to have someone to look after again, and then with time, you can get your own apartment." He suggested, this was the only and best solution to the problem at hand so I accepted it gratefully, "I just have to clear it with Miss Smith, that's the lady you saw earlier, she's in charge of this whole operation, she stands as prime minister."  
"Oh, cool, I guess," Charlie stood up, put away the Dictaphone and wheeled me out of the room.


	4. Chapter 4

I sat outside Miss Smith's office, tapping my fingers on my legs, who had been looking after me? I wondered, there had to have been someone washing me? , cutting my nails and hair etc.? All my life. For some unknown reason I felt guilty like I had when I had lied to my friends about Adrian. Oh. My friends, thinking about them hurt, I missed them so bad. How was I going to fit in here when I had already missed 16 years of my life? I had no friends, just Charlie and he was an adult, he had a job, I would hardly ever see him apart from the odd interview about what had happened in my other life or if they had to run any tests. I found myself wishing I had just died instead of ending up here, anywhere would have been better than here. I started to think about all the times I had had with my friends, all the snow days, discovering YouTube for the first time, playing strawberry dipping where you had to eat strawberries out a bowl filled with whipped cream, pushing Emeline's face in it when it was her go, going bowling with our Spanish exchange students. I tried my very best not to cry but the tears started and they wouldn't stop, all those things we had planned to do were never going to happen. I made a strange moaning noise as I realized that I would never see my cousins grow up, see my brother's baby who was due for January next year. I wonder if they still lived on in their little world or if they shut down when I woke up, and if they were still there how were they feeling.

The big door next to me swung open and Charlie walked out and looked down at me,  
"It took a while, but she said yes!" He exclaimed, grinning, his face fell when he saw mine, "Hey what's wrong?" He asked bobbing down to my height. I couldn't bring myself to speak, I opened my mouth but nothing came out and my face crumpled,  
"Friends, gone." Was the best I could do, he looked down at the floor and started to chew his lip,  
"I'm sorry, if I could do anything I would, you weren't meant to wake up." He told me, but this didn't make me feel any better, I would rather have not woken up. "Come on, I'll take you to my mums, she might make you feel better, you know cause she was your mum." He stood up again and started to wheel me down the corridor,  
"Stop." I said suddenly, sniffing and wiping my eyes, and he did, "I can do it myself." I grasped the wheels and began to spin them vigorously, I shot off down the corridor and Charlie had to run after me. I stopped when I reached the other end of the corridor, "Wow," I whispered, I didn't know my arms were that powerful. Charlie caught up with me and hunched over, out of breath, he was laughing. I laughed with him. It was fun but I'd have to learn to go at a more reasonable speed in future.

"That was, fast!" He exclaimed when he got his breath back, I nodded,  
"When will I be able to walk again?"  
"I have no idea, but technically you haven't walked for 12 years, it will be like learning as a toddler but harder because you're heavier than you were back then."  
"Yeah, but when can I start learning?"  
"Whenever you like," He said, looking at me, "We could start tomorrow if you like, I have a mostly free day apart from monitoring A…" He stopped and looked at the floor,  
"Monitoring what?" I asked,  
"Oh nothing, nothing." He exclaimed and started to walk down a corridor, I followed him trying to figure it out in my head, so I wasn't the only one as I had thought, there was someone else, I wonder if I had met them in my life.  
"Please tell me, is there someone else? Who is it?"  
"I can't sorry Katie" He apologized,  
"Oh c'mon, no one will know!" I encouraged him, for a second he looked as though he would crack and tell me,  
"They are always watching." He whispered, it was barely audible, I frowned, who was watching? This place was very confusing, it's like he wasn't allowed to tell me anything.  
"Erm, ok…" I replied, "Maybe later then hey." I added, laughing, I wouldn't give up that easily, I would find out who else was in here, maybe I would know them and we could struggle through this together.

Charlie stopped in front of another door, swiped a card across a box next to it and pushed through it. The door opened out into the street, there were very few people out for 5pm, the streets would usually be swarming with people by now. I looked around me searching the area for any sign or where I was, there were none, not even any road signs, but then again, the road looked abandoned, covered in cracks with massive pot holes and in some places weeds shot out of the tarmac. We went down a few back streets until we reached a park, the leaves on the trees looked ill, they were a very light green and appeared to be wilting slightly, the grass looked a murky brown colour and there were no animals, this worried me a lot, what had happened here to make it like this. In front of me there was the start of a clearing, it opened out into a wide expanse of road and marble, a tall podium like statue arose from the ground, across from it a large, grand building, all the windows were smashed and the walls were covered in graffiti and it looked about ready to collapse, yet it looked familiar, then I finally recognized it,  
"Holy shit!" I cried, "We're in London, I was here, we were going to visit here tomorrow, Buckingham Palace…"


	5. Chapter 5

"Mum, this is Katie." Charlie said, stepping to one side and revealing me, sat there in the porch,  
"Hi" I mumbled, I was taken aback about just how similar Charlie's mum was to mine, he described her well, the only difference was that my mum was shorter than this woman. She looked down at me, smiling, I smiled back up at her, "You're really good at describing people," I whispered to Charlie, "She looks just like my mum."  
"Thanks." He whispered in reply, chuckling,  
"Well what are you waiting for? Come inside!" She exclaimed and I began wheeling myself in, the porch lead into a large room which connected with the kitchen, we followed her in, "Would you two like a cup of tea?" She asked, filling the kettle,  
"Oh, yes please." I said, this place was exactly like me home, it felt wonderful to be there,

I moved towards the breakfast bar where I always ate my cereals in a morning and waited patiently, after a minute the kettle pinged,  
"Do you take any sugar Kelly?" She asked,  
"Katie," I corrected her, "And yes, one please."  
"Here you go." She said placing a mug in front of me and another in front of Charlie, "So tell me, where did you two meet then?" She asked, settling down into a brown leather arm chair by the fire,  
"The lab..." Charlie answered absent mindedly while I sipped on my tea,  
"Oh so you're a scientist then are you?" She looked at me expectantly, I shook my head, "Ok," She replied laughing, then she turned back to Charlie, "How long have you two been dating then? I'm surprised Charlie hasn't brought you home sooner." She concluded, the tea which had previously been in my mouth was now spraying out, I coughed and covered my mouth then started to laugh,

"Mum!" Charlie basically yelled, "We don't go out with each other!"  
"Oh." She replied, blushing bright red, "Sorry." I couldn't stop laughing, my eyes started to water.  
"Mum, she's subject 5, you know, test subject." Her eyes widened and she turned to stare at me, I stared right back at her, I gave her a little wave, "I was wondering if she could stay here for a little bit until we can get her an apartment, I've cleared it with Miss Smith, please mum it'll only be for a little while."  
"Well, if it's alright with her, then of course you can stay sweetie!" She said, smiling at me, I looked up at Charlie, grinning, he smiled back at me, "You can stay in Alex's room," His mum thought aloud, then she looked down at my wheelchair, "Ah, that may be a problem..." She trailed off, I too looked down,  
"Hey Charlie," I looked up at him and he was chewing his lip, looking worried, "How long do you think it will take me to get walking again?" I asked, maybe if it didn't take me long everything would be fine, " I mean we could start now, I'm sure I'd be able to crawl up the stairs" I added, he took a deep breath then sighed,  
"I suppose it's the best we can do, but maybe tomorrow, I need to get back to the lab." He concluded and walked out of the room, abandoning me with a stranger I'd known my whole life, I looked up at his mum, she was looking out of the murky window, arms folded across her stomach, she looked nostalgic, and a little sad, she turned around and looked at me, her eyes had lost all the happiness from before and were now as grey as the windows she had been previously gazing through. She blinked hard and covered her mouth, before walking over to the kitchen at snails pace,  
"Would you like something to eat Katie?" She asked in monotone,  
"I'm ok thank you" I replied, though I was actually empty inside, and craved something to eat. It was the way she said it, I felt so, so unwelcome.


	6. Chapter 6

1 MONTH LATER

"Hey Katie!" Charlie called, "I have something for you." I looked up at the door from where I was sat on the bed, he popped his head around the frame and grinned,  
"What have you got then?" I asked,  
"Guess."  
"Oh do I have to?" I moaned, his guessing games were driving me crazy,  
"Yes!" He exclaimed, I sighed and racked my mind for what he had said he would find for me, remembering nothing I decided to guess silly thing,  
"Erm...A large green elephant?"  
"No."  
"A purple watering can?"  
"No."  
"A sweatshirt with your face on it. I don't know Charlie, just tell me." Now it was his turn to sigh, he rolled his eyes,  
"Fine!" He walked into the room and sat next to me on the bed, "Katie, I have big news." He started then stopped and smiled to himself,  
"Come on!" I begged, "Just tell me!"  
"Katie, I found, I found your family." He said, he could barely contain himself.

I stared at him my heart began to beat hard and my breaths became rugged, my eyes fell on a pale brown folder which had to contain the information about them, did I have brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles? I took a deep breath, I had wanted to know for so long but now I didn't want to know, I had just got settled with Charlie and his family. I wanted to reply but I couldn't tear my eyes from the folder and its contents which would change my life. I took a deep breath again and breathed through my nose then nodded,  
"Can I see?" I asked quietly, looking down at my hands and jagged finger nails from where I had been chewing them,  
"Of course," He replied laughing, "I got them for you after all."

He passed the folder to me and I reluctantly peeled back the stiff cover, inside was a few sheets of paper with information on, from a glance I could see dates and the odd name or two. A picture fell out onto my lap, I picked it up and looked at it closely, it was of a woman who looked around forty years old maybe older, she looked almost exactly like the pictures of my mum that Charlie had shown my all those weeks ago, I held it up to him and he adjusted his head so he too could view the picture,  
"That is your auntie Eleanor." He told me, I looked back at the picture.  
"But, she looks exactly like my mum." I mumbled,  
"Yes your mum and Eleanor were identical twins, obviously Eleanor looks different seen as the pictures were taken sixteen years apart."  
"Oh, ok." I delved my hand into the folder once more and returned with a hand full of other photos, I looked through them slowly, passing each one the Charlie so he could tell me who they were. The first was the lady again except she looked a lot younger and was stood next to my mother, the second was a picture of a girl with long straight black hair and brown eyes, she had a big smile across her face, was this my sister?  
"That's your cousin, she's called Emma and she is nine years old." Charlie informed me, obviously not then.

The next was a picture of a man, he had short black hair and was wearing a V-neck cardigan over a button up shirt, a strange choice of clothes but it suited him,  
"That's your uncle Michael, married to Eleanor, he is forty-four" The next picture was of a boy who looked a few years older than me but he didn't have black hair, his hair was light brown and flicky, his face resembled mine slightly, as I passed it to Charlie I saw another one of the boy underneath,  
"How come he gets two photos and the others only get one?" I asked, curious of the importance of this mystery boy,  
"Oh, no there aren't two these are identical twins, your brother, their names are Jack and Finn they are nineteen years old." He told me, I smiled to myself, I had brothers, this was great. Charlie took the sheets out of the folder and began to read them too me while I leaned back against the wall of the bedroom. From this I discovered that my aunt, uncle and cousin's last name was Needham and that after my mothers death Eleanor tried to take in all three of us but the government wouldn't let her because and I quote "There are lots of families out there who would love a daughter, don't be so greedy" This disgusted me, I could have lived a normal life, with my family and not be in this mess, and obviously there were not lots of families out there who wanted to have a daughter as I was not adopted. So Jack and Finn lived with my mother's side of the family while I was hooked up to some drug which could have killed me for twelve years. I also found that my real name was not Katie but it was in fact; Isabella and my last name was Harries. This was strange, I would have to get used to being called Isabella or Izzy now instead of Katie which I was used to.  
"You better start training me to react to the name Isabella if I'm going to meet these people." I said jokily, Charlie laughed,  
"Yes Isabella, yes we shall"


	7. Chapter 7

2 MONTHS LATER

I had spent the past month since discovering the existence of my biological family finding out everything I could about them, everyone was getting used to calling me Izzy or Isabella and my walking had vastly improved. Charlie told me last week that I could go and visit my family any time I liked and they would be over joyed to see me after so long, but my brothers probably wouldn't remember me and of course Emma wouldn't know me. But I could rely on my aunt and uncle. And I really did want to go, but I had some deep feeling that they wouldn't want me, that Eleanor had replaced me with Emma and I wasn't needed any more. I got up from the bed and began my daily exercises to build up the strength in my legs. As I walked up and down the room I mulled over the idea of going tomorrow, going and seeing them, my family, my real family, and if they didn't want me, Charlie's family did, my other family wanted me. Then again, if my real family wanted me, if my auntie wanted me to move in with them what would I do, they would know about me but I would only know the facts about them, not their personalities, their feelings, I slumped back down onto the bed, all this walking was pointless, I could walk perfectly fine now, okay maybe I did stumble a little but it's better than a wheelchair.

"Ka- I mean Izzy, have you done your walking yet?" I heard Charlie call up the stairs, I groaned loudly, loud enough for him to hear at the bottom of the stairs anyway, I heard him chuckle to himself then his footsteps slowly faded away as he walked back into the kitchen. I shuffled to the side of the bed and stood up, I sighed and carried on walking, back and forth, back and forth, glancing up at the luminous green wall clock which hung above the door. Only ten more minutes and I could read, I loved to read, so many great authors which I had never heard of before, bookshelves lined the walls of the room, each of them filled with books of different genres with crazy story lines. I looked down at my wrist and saw the red hole in the centre, the needle prick which would never heal, a permanent scar, for all the world to see to show that I was one of the guinea pigs, though it would never live up to the ultimate pain of the mental scars, the loss of my friends and family, finding out my whole life had been a sham, finding out that Adrian was not real and that he was in actual fact a figment of my imagination. This hurt the most, he had felt so real, so special, and in my moment of happiness it was all taken away. I pushed the thought from my find as the clock slowly ticked it's way to 12 pm and the tedious walking finally came to an end. I slumped down onto the bed and leaned to the side to scooped up a book which I had started reading yesterday, it's about a girl with cancer who meets this gorgeous boy called Augustus or something like that, so far I'm up to the bit where they've gone to Amsterdam to visit this author who turns out to be a total idiot, it's a really good book. I rubbed my temple to try and ease the headache which was slowly building in my brain, I sighed heavily as it made no difference and settled down to read, yawning.

I woke with a start, the book splayed out on my chest, someone was calling my name, over and over again but the sound was slurred, then I heard foot steps pounding up the stairs. I looked around the room but my vision was fuzzy, I couldn't get my eyes to focus and my head felt like it was going to implode,  
"Katie?" Someone yelled, I groaned, no matter how much I tried I couldn't open my eyes properly, it felt like I hadn't slept in days. Someone's hands were on my shoulders shaking me, I groaned a little louder, the movement felt like someone was tazering my head,  
"Mum!" The person yelled and I heard the footsteps going back down the stairs and settled back down to sleep again, pulling my legs up to my chest so I was in the foetal position and let my eye lids droop.


	8. Chapter 8

The bright lights above me were blinding, the room was white with the exception of a light blue chair next the the bed I was laid on which Charlie was slumped in. I looked down the bed, there were two tubes going in my arms one on each wrist, I traced the bright blue vein in my arm with my finger then grabbed hold of the plastic tubing and yanked it out of my wrist, it stung for a second then the pain subsided. After repeating this on my other wrist I moved myself to the end of the bed and unhooked the clipboard from the metal bars, on the front page in big letters it said my name, age and underneath that TYPE 1 DIABETES was written in red, why must thing like this always happen to me, first I die then I get diabetes. I began flipping through the sheets, I don't know what I was looking for, it just gave me something to do.

"Katie?" Charlie mumbled, I looked at him as he woke up. Yawning and stretching.  
"Why." I asked,  
"What?"  
"Why? Why me?"  
"What do you mean?" He asked, his eyes falling on the clipboard in my hands,  
"Fucking diabetes, that's what I mean!" I screamed at him, he looked confused but then shook his head,  
"No, you HAD diabetes." He told me "But the doctors replaced your pancreas and now you're fine." He said, smiling. I frowned at him confused, that doesn't happen you can't sure someone of diabetes, it just didn't happen.

The large door swung open and a woman dressed like a nurse walked in, on her pinafore was a pinned a badge with 'Chloe' written on. She was pushing a trolley with all sorts of different things on, like scalpels and bandages, she looked up at me, frowned then walked back out again, leaving the trolley. I stared at it, what had they done to me? I pulled my top up a little to reveal a square of padding held on with a bandage and medical tape. The door was opened once again and the lady strolled in again, except this time she was smiling, in her hand she carried a gas cannister and a thing I had seen on TV to cover someone's mouth, I looked up at her,  
"This won't take a minute sweetie." She said and went to put the mask over my mouth, I pushed it away,  
"I highly recommend using this gas you know, I had my appendix removed when I was your age and the doctor forgot to turn the gas on, it was the worst pain I have ever felt" She told me, tilting her head to one side, "We just need to change your stitches and get you a new dressing on and you'll be fine for another few hours"  
"Okay," I mumbled, taking the mask and putting it over my mouth, I looked over at Charlie who took my hand and gave it a squeeze, as my judgement slowed I began to feel very tired and drifted off to sleep.

Someone's hands were on my shoulders, shaking them gently, I took a deep breath and opened my eyes, Charlie stood over me,  
"You're such a heavy sleeper!" He exclaimed laughing,  
"Charlie, when can I get out of the hospital?" I asked, propping myself up on my elbows. Just then the nurse walked back in, she had obviously heard my question as she answered it.  
"In a day or two, then you should be right as rain. Your brother's been here the whole time you have!" She exclaimed "I'm sure he'll love to get back home and sleep in a bed rather than on chairs." She continued chuckling to herself, "Although feel free to get ill any time you like, your brother is cute!" She whispered in my ear her warm breath tickled my ear, I laughed out loud and had to cover my mouth, as she set a plate of typical, bland hospital food on a tray across my lap she slipped what appeared to be a cinnamon swirl wrapped in cling film out of her pocket and placed it on the tray,  
"Enjoy," She said winking at me then turned and tossed one at Charlie. In one swift movement she had opened the door and pulled her trolley back out with her, the large door closed but not before she had time to flash me a toothy grin, she was lovely. As I ate my dinner I thought about my plans for meeting my family, I wanted to see them as soon as possible. It was a Thursday today wasn't it, which meant I would definitely be out by Sunday, maybe Monday evening was my best bet, they would all be in.

I told Charlie this idea and he agreed, Monday evening, meeting my family, I took a deep breath and laid my head back against the cold, white wall.


	9. Chapter 9

Monday afternoon arrived faster than I wanted it to, I had prepared a speech of some sort to say to whoever answered the door.  
"Ready?" Charlie asked, I nodded and took a deep breath then got into Charlie's little car, it was red and looked a lot like my mum's, well my dream mum's anyway. Outside it was blowing a gale and the tree branches were being thrown around violently, I gazed out of the window and pulled my coat further around me. Maybe I could fake being ill and get out of it, I did feel a bit dizzy, but Charlie wouldn't let me get out of it that easily. The car drew up outside a row of terraced houses,  
"Do you remember the number?" Charlie asked,  
"Yes." I replied in monotone  
"Are you nervous?" He asked,  
"Yes." I replied again sighing and rubbed my eyes hard with the palms of my hands. "If it's the wrong house or they don't remember me I'll pretend I'm doing a survey for drainpipes or something." I mumbled, Charlie sighed,  
"It's all going to be fine, okay Izzy!" He exclaimed, running his fingers through his ruffled hair, "I'll be right here if you need me." He told me, this was slightly reassuring.

I stepped out of the car and onto the pavement, the cool breeze took my hair and spun it in a golden whirlwind around my head, I crossed my arms across my stomach as the wind bit at my revealed skin. My eyes scanned the numbers screwed into the front of the houses. There it was; 63. Baskets were hung from the walls, full of flowers which overflowed from every side, they were all different, bright, happy colours, they made me feel welcome. Taking a deep breath, I un-latched the gate and took my first step into my new life. The path was plain concrete and the front garden had been covered over with plastic sheeting and dull grey pebbles. The front door was a deep green colour, just like my old school's uniform, placing one foot in front of the other was the hardest thing I've ever done, my heart was beating like mad, just like when Adrian kissed me... No, my family, forget him, stupid figment of my imagination messing up my life. Before I could stop myself I had lifted my fist up and knocked loudly at the door, praying no-one would answer, unfortunately my prayers didn't work and the large door was opened to reveal a tired looking woman,  
"Hello?" She said said after a moment of silence, her likeness to the picture and my biological mother was astonishing, I opened my mouth but no noise came out, no matter how hard I tried, "Look, I'm really busy sweetheart, maybe you could come back when you are ready to talk." She said, starting to close the door,  
"No!" I cried, the woman looked up at me,  
"So, are you going to tell me what you want or can I go and make dinner for my family?" She asked,  
"I..I.." I stuttered trying to compose myself, "I'm Isabella Harries, I'm 16 years old, my mum was Jessica Harries and my dad was Michael Harries, they died in an explosion when I was 3 months old, I was taken into care, I have an auntie called Eleanor. Are you her?" I asked, suddenly out of breath, I seemed to have captured the woman's attention, she clung onto the door frame, her mouth open, her eyes flickered with sorrow as she remembered me.

"Michael," She whispered, "Michael!" She said again, this time she yelled, a man jogged to the doorway and put his hand on her shoulder, it was the man from the picture, it had to be! "Michael, it's Izzy, it's, she, she." And with that she burst into tears, falling into her husbands arms, he clung to her, rubbing her back, and kissing the top of her head. I stood there shivering, waiting.  
"Mummy?" I heard a little voice call, a girl scampered out of a room into the hallway and ran to the woman, wrapping her arms around her waist, "Mummy, what's wrong?" She exclaimed, sounding worried. Slowly the woman's sobs grew quieter and she pulled herself away from her husband and freed herself from the girl's vice like grip, she turned, and stared at me, tilting her head to one side. Her eyes were red and she started to laugh breathily,  
"It really is you isn't it Iz, just look at her Mikey she looks so much like her mother, doesn't she!" She stepped down from the house onto the path. I took a step back, shying away from her touch as she reached out to put her hand on the side of my face. The longer I looked at her the more I could remember seeing her as a small child, her hair was curlier back then, she had less wrinkles. A memory surfaced of a laugh, a laugh that sounded like tinkling bells, my mothers laugh, my mother who looked exactly like this woman. I bit my bottom lip as it started to tremble.

"Do you remember me sweetie?" She whispered, I nodded my head and felt the sides of my mouth turn down, "Hey, hey, come here." She said, wrapping her arms around me as the first tears rolled down my cheeks, I slowly moved my arms from her grip and placed them around her neck, sobs racked through my body and I hugged her tighter. After about a minute she pulled away from me and held me at arms length, "Please, come inside, warm up, I can't leave you out here on your own, I'm never going to let anyone take you away from me again." She took he hand and led me inside, pictures covered the walls, mostly family, I saw my brothers and stopped, they looked so happy. There was a banging noise upstairs then the sound of people running down the stairs. Two boys appeared at the bottom of the staircase, laughing, they were only in their boxer shorts, one was covered in flour and the other had an egg in each hand and appeared to be trying to smash them over the others head. These must be my brothers, they both looked up as I chuckled to myself, one look at me and they were both back up the stairs, I heard a door slam shut then silence.  
"I apologise for them, your brothers are very hyperactive for 19 year olds."  
"Mhmm" I mumbled, looking around at the walls again, I saw a smiling, rosy cheeked baby, a girl, I presumed it was Emma, dressed in a baby grow and a little hat which resembled a strawberry.  
"That's you." My aunt told me, I nodded and smiled, "So, tell me what happened to you? I wasn't allowed to see you after your 4th birthday." She asked curiously,  
"Well that's a long story." I mumbled  
"I have time." She replied and took me to a living room type area and signalled for me to sit down before sitting down in a chair across from me and putting her chin on her fists to prop her head up, this was going better than I could have ever planned.


	10. Chapter 10

I glanced up at the large clock which sat about the fire place, the second hand ticked lazily round, since arriving here, the time has flown by, I had been there nearly two hours, I had explained everything, leaving out the part where I could have died because of the drugs they used, by the end my aunt was in tears again and was sat next to me on the sofa with her arms wrapped around me, on my other side sat my uncle, his arms were also wrapped tightly around me, I felt like a long lost niece sandwich. But I have to admit they made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, that someone could care so much about me, I felt whole like Charlie and his family had been a misfitting fill for my gap but now that gap had been filled by my real family, and it felt good. My aunt sniffled and moved herself a little closer to me even though she was already pressed up against me.

Once again I heard foot steps on the stairs, one of the boys stuck their head round the door and looked at us, I looked up at him, with a look of 'please help me escape, it's awkward having a woman who you haven't seen in 12 years breasts pressed against you' He frowned then loudly cleared his throat, I felt her head shift to look up him,  
"Umm Ellie, what's going on?" He asked, maybe I should call her Ellie too. Or is it too soon?  
"Get your brother and Emma please love." She took her hands from around me and my uncle did the same, I breathed deeply. Second later the boy returned with the other boy and a small girl balanced on his hip, I smiled at them but they didn't even acknowledge me, just walked in and sat down on various seats around the room, the little girl snuggled into the boy's shoulder and he wrapped his arms around her.  
"Well kids, this is Isabella." She said and looked at me expectantly, I was hesitant, "Go on sweetie," She said putting her hand on my shoulder.

"My name is Isabella Maria Harries, I'm 16 years old and my mum and dad died when I was three months old, I was put into care and never saw my brothers, aunt or uncle again, when I was 4, a testing facility took me in and started to experiment on me, I was put into a medical coma with a special drug and when I was in the coma I lived a life I was called Katie Murray and had two older brothers; twins, Charlie and Alex, my dad died when I was 8 years old, I lived this life until I was 16 and then I went to London with my friends to go to a YouTube convention and met a boy, oh he was so lovely, he was called Adrian, we fell in love and I went with my friends to meet him but I crossed the road to get to him and I was hit by a lorry, I died and woke up here, it turns out my doctor was Charlie and he had slowly been telling me about his life and that had become my life. I have been living with them for the past 2 months while he looked for you,"

A tear trickled down my face as I remembered all of my friends and all the good times as well as the bad. "It felt so real, I had so many friends, we were so close, and Adrian, oh Adrian, I miss him so much!" I cried covering my mouth as I looked up at the ceiling and started to cry again, my uncle comforted me while my brothers thought about the situation, one of them stood up suddenly,  
"Who told you about Izzy, what the fuck is wrong with you, you will never be my sister, she was adopted by some rich snobs who wouldn't let us see her, just get out, NOW!" He yelled, I was so scared he sounded do angry, I didn't move. He marched up to me "DIDN'T YOU HEAR ME CUNT, GET OUT OF MY HOUSE AND STOP UPSETTING MY FAMILY." He screamed at me, his brother jumped up nearly throwing the little girl onto the floor, and grabbed him,  
"C'mon Finn, lets go for a walk." He said, pulling his brother out of the room, I could hear them in the kitchen,  
"I just miss her okay, I miss my baby sister and mum and dad."  
"I know, so do I."  
"That girl isn't our sister." He spat.  
"I wouldn't be so sure Finn, she looked like the photos of mum we have, she could be, she might have come back to us." My aunt and uncle got up,  
"Stay here sweetie, we'll sort this out and everything will be fine." My aunt said and they all walked out leaving me and the little girl alone in the front room,

"You look like my mummy." The girl said,  
"I'm your mummy's twin sister's daughter." I replied wiping my eyes,  
"Please don't be sad, you should be happy." She said to me, getting up and walking over to me. She tilted her head to one side and pointed at me "You have the same eyes as Jack and Finny," She mumbled in a little voice, "They're very pretty." She exclaimed before shuffling slowly closer to me and climbing onto my lap and wrapping her arms around my neck,  
"Thank you." I whispered into her hair as I held her tightly,  
"You make my mummy happy, she isn't happy very much." She whispered back. And that was that we sat there, at peace, I don't remember the others coming back in but I opened my eyes suddenly and saw them all sitting around me, I gasped and rushed to the front door,  
"Izzy?" My aunt called after me, she sounded scared. I yanked open the door and ran down the path, leaping over the gate, Charlie was sat in his car, fast asleep, I ran up to the car and banged on the window, he woke with a start.  
"Charlie take me away now, I can't stay there please, you don't understand, please." I yelled as I pulled open the door and sat down on the seat, "GO!" I yelled, he put his foot down and I put the window down, trying to catch my breath,  
"IZZY!" My aunt screamed from the front door, her arm outstretched as if she could reach right into the car and grab me, her face was twisted into a grimace and as we sped down the street I could see her fall to her knees in the wing mirror of the car, I squeezed my eye lids shut and pressed my head back into the seat trying to calm my racing heart.


	11. Chapter 11

"Are you going to tell me what that was all about?" Charlie asked as we walked in through the front door, I looked down at the plush carpet, would I want to go through that again? I would have to if I wanted Charlie to let this go, I started walking up the stairs to the bedroom,  
"Follow me." I mumbled, no emotion in my voice. We reached the baby blue wooden door and I paused before pushing it open to listen if Charlie had followed me or not, which he had. The room was just as I had left it, books strewn about, duvet scrunched up in a ball on the mattress, I shoved it out of the way and sat down beckoning to Charlie to sit next to me,  
"Well?" He said expectantly,  
"I fell asleep while I was there." I said thoughtfully pausing for breath,  
"Well that's not that bad," Charlie interjected,  
"Let me finish!" I sighed looking down into my lap.

"I fell asleep and I had a dream, it started off all blurry and I was standing in a field, but then my view became clearer and I was in a grave yard next to a church but it was really cold so I thought I'd go inside to get warm. So when I got round to the front of the church I could see black cars all around it, so I figured it was a funeral, I went inside because I know how horrible it is when someone dies. I went inside and there were loads of people sitting on the pews or whatever they're called, those big wooden seats and they were all crying, which you would expect at a funeral, I sat down on my own at the back, to see the ceremony," I paused for a second, giving Charlie time to think about what I had said, he nodded and I carried on, "The vicar guy got up and started this speech about how lovely this girl was and how everyone would miss her and she was a big part of everyone's lives and I just couldn't stop thinking about how what he was saying was utter drivel, she wasn't a big part of everyone's lives, not everyone would miss her, they say that at every funeral, anyway, then he said something about 'her' song requested by her friends, and the song that I always used to sing that my friends would say was my song came on, they also played a few others that I liked. I just thought it was a coincidence until he got back up behind his little table and told everyone that Katie would be watching over them all as their guardian angel, that creeped me out a bit, then I saw someone stand up to go and make a speech followed by a few others and it was all my friends. I didn't say anything because it was a funeral and it would have been disrespectful to just ask them why they were there in the middle of the ceremony. And I swear they talked about me, in fact I'm sure they did, because at the end they said that they would always have a Ginge sized hole in their hearts, Ginge was my nickname by the way, because back then I was strawberry blonde."

"The vicar guy got up again and said that we could view the coffin at our leisure before it was buried, so before anyone else could get up I ran down the aisle and almost into the coffin but I stopped myself just in time. It was me Charlie, my fucking mangled body, I was covered in bruises then I felt someone behind me and it was Adrian, my Adrian, he was crying, and he leaned right though me and kissed the dead me on the cheek Charlie, but I felt his lips on my face. No matter how much I tried I couldn't get anyone to acknowledge me, my friends, family, even a few of my teachers, the Adrian's family too. From the back of the church I heard someone call my name, like a whisper on the wind, but they called me Katie, not Isabella. When I turned around my friend stood there, smiling at me, not one of the friends who did the speech, I'm talking about my dead friend, she got stabbed when we were 14, I was holding her when she died, all the guy wanted was her purse, stupid idiot."

"Josie, that was her name, she called me a few more times, beckoning for me to come to her, which I did and then she hugged me really hard and we were both crying and when she took a step back she told me that the first year was the hardest but you get used to it, I didn't understand, then she explained to me that no one else could see us, we were spirits, the little bit of the person that gets left behind if they don't die the way God intended; old age or illness. It was horrible Charlie." I finally stopped, squeezing my eyelids tightly shut to prevent myself from crying again,  
"Oh Izzy." He said as I fell into him, his arms wrapped around me, I could hear his steady heartbeat through his shirt, it calmed me down considerably, "It's okay, hey, you'll be fine, you don't have to go back if you don't want to." He whispered into my hair then wrested the side of his face on the top of my head and rubbed my back slowly.


	12. Chapter 12

I pulled on a red plaid shirt over my jeans and top and grabbed a handbag, today was shopping day, the boys' birthday presents and Christmas presents too, I had £60 after starting a part time job at a newsagents down the road, I also need some clothes so today was an opportunity for clothes shopping too. I loved shopping, just having money was fun to me, let alone spending it. I leaped down the stairs and pulled on a pair of Charlie's old Converse,

"Bye," I called, "I'll be back for tea, if I'm going to be late I'll call you."

"Okay sweetie, see you later." Angela called. I slipped my mobile into my back pocket and opened the front door. Outside it was a surprisingly warm day for late November, the sun was out and children filled the street, a light breeze blew and birds twittered away to themselves, I could just tell that today would be a great day. Nearing the end of the street I spotted Olivia and Faith, two girls who I had met who also worked part time at the same shop as me, I classed them as friends because when I waved the waved back.

After about 20 minutes I spotted the first few shops and sped up a little. As I neared the centre I worked out which shops I would go to first, I had decided to get the boys chocolate and DVDs, they did love their movies. I rounded a corner into Grey Street and entered the music shop, it also had DVDs, gadgets and band merchandise. After a while I had chosen out a DVD set for each of them and picked out a shirt each with their favourite bands on for Christmas. In my head I made a mental note; boys nearly done, Angela to go. The woman behind the counter passed me a large bag with the items in and I smiled at her and left the shop. What next? Chocolate and cards! Across the street and a few shops down was a shop called Forntons which was, according to Angela, a very popular chocolate shop so I figured it would be best to go for well known brands. The smell of chocolate inside the shop over whelmed me and I bought myself a little bag of chocolate buttons as well as three boxes of chocolates for Alex, Charlie and Angela, now the boys were done apart from cards. I think I'll get Angela some nice clothes for her Christmas present, I can also get myself some new jeans! Checking my purse I saw that of the original £50 I now had only £30, I would have to limit myself to a cheap pair of jeans I thought to myself and sighed, these tatty old things were actually the boys' hand-me-downs and were very mis-fitting.

I spotted Primark about 20 shops down and pulled out the bag of buttons and began munching on them, I had plenty of time to have a few, you weren't allowed to eat in the shops you see, and I took this rule very seriously. I put the small bag back in my pocket as I pushed open the big glass doors of the shop and glanced around the rails and racks for something which would suit Angela, I found a number of items very soon and spent another half an hour deciding which one she would like the most, finally deciding on a dress which only cost £10 so I also chose some boots which were discounted. All together they costed just under £15. This was excellent, I had £5 to buy myself some new jeans that would actually fit. There was a wide range of jeans and I ended up picking out 5 pairs which I then went and tried on. I couldn't decide between a black pair or a blue pair of the same type of jeans so I closed my eyes and spun around in small cubicle I was stood in, on one side was the blue jeans on the other the black ones. I stopped and found myself pointing at the black pair. I returned the other 4 pairs to the assistant and strolled up to the counter where I bought the presents for Angela and my jeans. And that was that, shopping done. I checked my phone, I had set off at about 2pm and it was now nearly 4, I hurried out of the shop with my bags. We usually ate at about half 5 but I still had to get the presents past everyone and find somewhere to hide them, oh crap I still had to get cards and wrapping paper too, I knew there was a reason I hadn't spent that last £10.

I walked quickly down the high street dodging people as they walked the opposite way to me. A large group of boys approached me and I looked down at the ground, glancing up quickly as the were right in front of me, there was one, he had dark brown hair swept over his eyes and was wearing a green jacket, he was gorgeous,

"Hey Chris watch out!" I heard one of them shout then start laughing and he looked up straight at me and moved quickly to one side to get out of the way,

"Oh sorry!" He exclaimed grinning,

"Oh, it's, it's okay." I mumbled feeling myself going red. I smiled up at him then carried on walking, I took a deep breath and chuckled to myself as I heard the boys whistling at me, I spun around quickly, knocking into a man who was walking up behind me,

"Shut up!" I yelled and started to laugh, this just made them whistle louder, I stuck my tongue out at them and grinned as I saw Chris smirking at me, he winked and my heart skipped a beat.

"C'mon boys." He said and started to walk back towards me, the others followed, I turned around and started to walk away, I heard their shoes against the pavement, jogging to catch up with me. I felt a hand grab hold of my shoulder and turned around, expecting Chris to be there. But when I looked up at the boys face it was my brother. I gasped,

"Hey Jack, what are you doing man?" Chris yelled, "She's mine!" My mouth was still open but no sound came out,

"Isabella?" Jack whispered, I blinked and nodded quickly. He smiled at me and pulled me into a tight hug, "I knew it was you," He mumbled, "I missed you little sis." I'm pretty sure he started to cry because he started to sniffle.

"I. I." I tried to explain why I had left before but he just shook his head and hugged me tighter, I wrapped my arms around him too. My eyes began to sting with tears but I blinked them back. The other boys stood motionless, looking at each other and shrugging, Chris stood there, looking down at the pavement, obviously thinking that Jack had stolen his girl. I unwrapped my arms and cleared my throat loudly. Jack stepped back and took a long look at me,

"You look so much like mum." He said, his friends looked at him, confused. "Guys, meet my baby sister, she came home." His voice broke halfway through his sentence and he had to cough to hide his emotion.

"You have a sister?" One of the other boys asked, staring at me, Jack nodded

"But I thought it was only Finn..." Another said.

"Nope." Jack said, wiping his eyes, "Izzy is 3 years younger than us, she was only 3 months old when mum and dad died, she was taken into care and we haven't seen her since, she's 16 now." He informed his friends who shook their heads and looked genuinely sad about our parents' death and me being taken away.

"I really have to go." I said remembering the time and looking down at my shoes,

"No!" Jack and Chris yelled at the same time, they looked at one another,

"I can't let you Izzy, we need you, you, me and Finn, we're family we need to stick together." He begged,

"But I've only known that you exist few a month." I whispered, "Maybe one day, but for now I need people I can trust, I'm sorry." I told him, "But please do call me, I need to get to know my long lost brothers, hey," I added, pulling out a receipt and scribbling down my number, I wrote it again on the other end as an after thought then ripped it in half, giving one piece to Jack and one to Chris.

"See you around." I said and walked off in the opposite direction, I could get cards next weekend.


	13. Chapter 13

"Aww Izzy, this is awesome!" Alex cried as he opened his final present; the DVD set. He pulled me into a one-armed hug, "You know what, you're the best pretend little sister ever!" He exclaimed and I laughed, just then my phone went off, I checked the caller ID and didn't recognize the number,  
"Sorry I have to take this." I apologised and walked out of the room and into the hallway, "Hello, who is this?" I asked cautiously,  
"Oh, hey is this Isabella, the girl we met in town,"  
"Yeah, and who am I speaking to?"  
"Oh it's Chris." I smiled, it had taken him long enough.  
"Hey Chris, how are you?"  
"Yeah I'm great, I was wondering if you're doing anything tomorrow, at about lunch time." He mumbled,  
"Well nothing...yet," I told him,  
"Would you like to, you know, go get a coffee of something?" My first date, this would be fun.  
"I don't like coffee." I informed him laughing,  
"Fine, fine tea is it then, you do like tea don't you?" He asked, I remembered back in the field with Adrian he had asked me the exact same question, I felt bad, had it been long enough? Had I been dead long enough to start dating again? What a stupid question, of course I was, it was my decision anyway.  
"That sounds perfect Chris, Cafe Nero at 1?" I asked,  
"Sounds good to me," He said, I could hear in his voice that he was grinning and so was I,  
"Well, I'll see you there." I concluded,  
"Yep."  
"Mhmm."  
"Bye then."  
"Goodbye."  
"See you tomorrow."  
"Goodbye Chris." I said a little more forcefully and we both laughed.  
"Bye!" We both said at the same time and I hung up. Clutching the phone to my chest, I walked back into the living room and they all looked up at me expectantly,  
"Who was it?" Charlie asked,  
"Oh just a friend." I mumbled, blushing,  
"I see," He said laughing and began to open his presents.

A few hours later after dinner I excused myself and went on a walk in the darkness. I stepped out onto the empty street, pulling my jacket tighter around myself as the cool breeze rushed against my face. I pulled my phone out of my pocket when I was at a safe distance from the house and called Jack's mobile, we had been texting for a few days now, I just wanted some company on the walk. He picked up on the second ring,  
"Hey Iz," He said,  
"Hey Jack, are you busy?"  
"Well, yes I am, sorry, lots of work for uni." He explained, my heart sank,  
"Okay, see you soon." I said and hung up, I needed to get away from everyone but wanted company if that makes sense, well it does to me anyway, my best chance was Chris. So I called him, he picked up almost immediately as though he had been waiting for me to call.  
"Hey Chris," I said, "Are you busy?" There was some shuffling then he replied.  
"No, why?"  
"Just wondering if you wanted to come for a walk with me."  
"That sound great!" I chuckled to myself, this guy was eager.  
"Do you know Lamp Street?" I asked, looking down at the road sign next to me.  
"Yeah sure, stay where you are, I'll be there in a second." And with that he hung up, so I sat on someone's garden wall waiting for him. In the dark everything looked so different, this was one of the only streets I knew but in the dark it scared me.

I heard footsteps to my left and swivled my head round to look if it was Chris. Which it was, he waved at me and I grinned back, he came to a stop next to me,  
"So you like walking?" He asked as we strolled across the road,  
"Yeah it's great I only learnt a few months ago." Chris laughed, thinking it was a joke when I was telling the truth.  
"So, you're Jack's little sister?"  
"Yep, long lost." I mumbled, shoving my hands in my pockets because they had nothing better to be doing.  
"Where did you go, I mean were you adopted then ran away or what?" He asked as we neared what I presumed to be a park, I sighed and took his hand, leading him down to a patch of grass. I sat down and he sat across from me, I picked a piece of grass and started to twirl it between my fingers.  
"Right here goes." I said. It took me like, an hour to explain what had happened to me, I didn't miss anything out, not even Adrian, he sat and listened to the whole thing, nodding at times. When I was finally finished, he looked down at the ground and started to hack at it with a piece of twig he had found while we sat there.  
"I'm so sorry." He said quietly,  
"It's okay, I have you guys now, congratulations for being the 11th person I know." I laughed and so did he,  
"You're really sweet Isabella." He whispered as though there were people surrounding us and he didn't want them to know. He took my hand and linked his fingers with mine, I shuffled round and rested my head on his shoulder.  
"I'll tell you something," I said after a minute or two, "It's fucking cold, I should have brought a scarf!" I exclaimed.  
"Let's get warm then." Chris mumbled and stood up suddenly, pulling me with him, he let go of my hand and started to run. He ran so far I couldn't see him so I ran off in the direction I thought he had gone.

"Chris!" I yelled into the black but there was no reply so I ran further, "Chriiiiiis!" I yelled again, this was scary but exhilarating, I could feel the adrenaline pumping through my veins as I went into a full on sprint. I ran into something and knocked it over, falling on top of it. I screamed and then started to laugh as I realised it was Chris underneath me. The calm laugh slowly turned hysterical and we were both rolling around on the wet grass close to tears. After finally catching my breath, I lay on the ground panting. Chris rolled on top of me and I could see his bright white teeth in the dark. His face was close to mine and then we were kissing, I wrapped my arms around his waist as we lay there. He had his hand on my face and his tongue in my mouth, and I have to say it was amazing. His breath tickled my face and his other hand was tangled in my now messy hair. He pulled back slightly and broke the kiss we both started laughing again and he stood up, then helped me to my feet. We walked back hand-in-hand to Lamp Street where he planted a kiss on my forehead and hugged me tightly.  
"I guess this means we're dating." He whispered into my hair.  
"Definitely." I replied and he gave me one last grin then walked off.  
"See you tomorrow Izzy." He called, I covered my mouth with my hand and started the short walk home. I had a boyfriend. And a gorgeous one at that.


	14. Chapter 14

As Christmas drew nearer my late night walks became more frequent, I would meet up with Chris or my brother and go for walks to the park, and just talk. I could tell them anything. They trusted me and I trusted them. Me and Chris still hadn't told Jack that we were dating yet. I didn't know if he would be a laid back friendly brother or a protective brother. In fact Jack didn't even know that me and Chris had met up after meeting them in town. So when Jack called me one night and invited me to the park for another walk I was shocked when I arrived to see that he had brought all of the boys he was with in town including Chris, we had to pretend we didn't know each other like we did, which was surprisingly easy. Jack had also brought Finn, and had obviously not told him that I was going. When he saw me he turned to Jack shaking his head and frowning,  
"What the fuck." He hissed, "Why did you bring her?" Jack looked at him,  
"She is our sister and I'm sure of it, Finn how would anyone else know about Isabella, our friends didn't even know she existed." He exclaimed.

One of Jack and Finn's friends looked up at me stood there alone on the side of the curb and walked over.  
"Hey, I'm PJ." He told me, "Sorry about Finn, he isn't usually like this." He apologised, I nodded.  
"It's okay." I mumbled.  
"Hey guys lets start walking, the boys can catch up." he yelled at the others, they all made sounds of agreement and started to walk slowly down towards the path. "You really do look like the boys, you know." PJ walked next to me down the path. After a while the others sat down and we joined them then waited for Jack and Finn to catch up. I grinned to myself remembering the first evening me and Chris had spent together, in this very field.  
I laid back on the grass and yawned, I had a feeling that we would be waiting a long time for the boys to get here. Slowly my eyes slid shut, I felt like I hadn't slept for years, If I just rested my eyes...

When I opened my eyes someone had draped a coat or two over me, someone's had was on my shoulder shaking me awake and as I sat up and stretched I saw the boys walking down the path through the dark. I shuffled closer to the group of boys and away from Finn. He had a look that could kill and his hands were balled into tight fists at his sides. Jack looked calm behind him. I brought my knees up to my chest and looked down at the ground,  
"Izzy." I heard Jack say, I looked up at him, he was stood over me, his arm outstretched to help me up. I grabbed his hand and got to my feet, I only went up to his shoulder. "Finn, meet our little sister, it's definitely her, we've been talking for quite a while now." He told Finn who glared at me, I looked at the ground and turned towards Jack, looking at him, showing my desperation to get away. He smiled at me encouragingly. I looked back over at Finn,  
"Hi Finn." I whispered. Daggers shot out of his eyes and pierced me, his gaze burning into me like fire. "Jack.." I begged turning back towards my brother.  
"Come on Finn put some effort in, she's been through a lot." He moaned at him, Finn opened his mouth and what he said upset me deeply.

"Can't you see, you moron, she isn't our sister, I would recognise her from a mile off, our sister was taken away, this idiot has found something out that she shouldn't have and is messing you about. Isabella isn't ever coming back, don't you get that? Whatever she's said to you about 'a dream world and dying, losing everything she had' she's lying okay, she'll take your money then go. Don't you understand, I understand about these gits with their filthy lies." My blood started to boil, how dare he, how fucking dare he after all I've been through, liar my arse. I told them the truth, and nothing but it. I couldn't hold it inside any longer.

"How dare you. How can you just presume some shit like that you dick, I have told you the truth. I died that day and everything I'd ever known died with me. I woke up in this shit hole. I've only just found out who the fuck I am and you have the cheek to tell that I'm not. You think this is hard for you, well let me tell you, it's a lot harder for me. I couldn't even remember mum, how do you think that made me feel. What horrible person can't remember her own mother. I hate myself and you know what I wish I had just died and stayed dead rather than coming here and being told that I'm not who I've been told I am and yelled at for something that the fucking prime-minister did to me when I was four years old." I paused for breath then carried on my rant. "Maybe you should reconsider that statement, because you can't even recognise your little sister when she's right in front of you. Because the moment I saw you something sparked inside of me, like a little switch on my memory, I could remember on my first birthday you pushed me out of my high chair when we were playing and I broke my arm, you used to tell me stories about two princes and a princess, and their castle in the clouds. Don't you remember? I do. One of my only memories. With you. Maybe you're right, maybe we're not brother and sister but I sure look a fucking lot like your mum if we aren't." I spat.

"You look nothing like my mother you cow!" He yelled and slapped me across the face, everything went into slow motion, he kept on hitting me, on my arms and chest and yelling, "You will never be my sister." Over and over. Someone wrapped their arms around me but I couldn't stop screaming, the tears were coming thick and fast. I had my own arms wrapped around my body to protect myself. Someone else seemed to be restraining Finn who was still yelling. I broke free of the person's grasp and ran. I had stopped screaming but I couldn't stop crying. I had to get away, away from him, away from everyone, tears blurred my vision and I fell once or twice. Someone was running behind me, trying to catch up so I headed for the woods to loose them it felt good to run and I wasn't getting tired. I ran for what felt like an hour before collapsing onto my knees, the sobs racking my body. I leaned to one side and threw up before crawling into a nearby bush. I curled into a ball and cried. I could still here Finn's words echoing in my head. Nobody wanted me, no one. Not even Charlie and his family, I was nothing but a waste of space I thought to myself and cried harder. After a while I fell into a deep sleep from which I wished to never wake up.


	15. Chapter 15

"Would you like any help?" He asked,  
"Oh, no thanks, I'm good" He replied. Another door opened then closed and Jack turned around and raised his eye brows at me and we ran up the stairs. Jack led me to his room where we entered and he closed the door behind him.  
"Izzy." He said firmly,  
"Yes?" I replied.  
"How long have you been seeing Chris?" He asked,  
"Shit, how did you find out?"  
"Well, for a start Chris was the one who pulled you away from Finn, then after you ran he kept on shouting at Finn saying stuff like 'How dare you do that to my girlfriend.' He also ran after you." I looked down, biting the inside of my cheek.  
"I'm sorry, we should have told you."  
"Yes, you should have."  
"We just didn't want you to force us apart, we're in love Jack." I exclaimed. He sighed and looked down, well at least now I know he's more of a protective brother than a laid back one.  
"Izzy don't you think he's a bit old for you, he's going to be 20 in a month, you're only 16. I just don't want you getting hurt, I mean he's a nice guy, he just, I don't know. He might make you do things you don't want to and..." I burst out laughing, I was laughing so hard I started crying "What?" He asked, bewildered,  
"Are you seriously giving me the sex talk?" I laughed even harder as he started to blush.  
"I...I just don't want you making any stupid mistakes." He said, fiddling with a piece of paper on the bed next to him.

I covered my mouth as I heard footsteps on the landing. The door opened and Finn stood there, a black ring surrounding his eye, although I felt bad I couldn't stop laughing. My brother who I'd only known for a few months was giving me 'the talk' oh my days. Finn looked down and cleared his throat,  
"I'm sorry Isabella, I just didn't believe you were my sister, I though I had lost her for good. I'd just given up." He started then stopped.  
"It's okay Finn," I replied, looking down. You could cut the tension in the room with a knife.  
"But I guess, I see it now."  
"Did Chris give you that black eye?" I asked, totally off topic, he nodded,  
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean for anyone to get hurt, I just, I don't know, it just piled up and up until I was ready to pop, and unfortunately you were the trigger."  
"It's okay." He mumbled, now it was just awkward, a horrible silence had filled the room. I stood up, he didn't move at first. But then reached into his pocket and pulled out some pictures. He began to flick through them, smiling briefly at each one before stopping on one of the pictures and looking from it, to me and back again, he looked sad. "Jack, you were right, she looks so much like mum." He whispered then took a deep breath.  
"Well from the pictures I've seen, you two look a lot like mum too." I said, remembering the passport photos I had seen and the one where mum and Ellie were together as children. I had only seen a few, maybe 4 or 5. They had all been formal, I longed to see the one Finn held in this hand, I wanted to see all of them, maybe there were some of me as a baby I had no idea. But before I could ask he put them back in his pocket.

He held out his hand for me to shake, I took a few small steps forward, close enough to take his hand. I took one more step forward then flung myself at him, throwing my arms around his neck. He stumbled back, grabbing hold of the door frame to steady himself. For a while he just stood there not doing anything then slowly raised his arms and wrapped his arms around me, tapping me on the back which just made the situation even more entertaining for Jack who appeared to be in hysterics on the bed. Afterwards, the three of us talked for a while until I had to leave. Phase one of my plan was complete, plus I seemed to have somehow made friend with Finn in the process. Now phase two; Chris.


	16. Chapter 16

The only thing I knew about Chris' house was that it had an orange door, which was quite an unusual colour for a front door. You would think this would make it easier to see, but no, I couldn't see it anywhere. In the end I gave up and sat down on the edge of the pavement. This was impossible. I checked my phone. Oh, I had only been looking for about 10 minutes, ha, but still. His house was no where to be found. I retied my shoelace which had become loose and was just about to call Chris when I looked up and saw the orange-doored house, right in front of me.  
"Fuck you, invisi-house." I said to myself and walked across the road.

After knocking on the front door I waited a few minutes before knocking again. Seconds later the door was pulled open revealing a gorgeous boy, his browny-blond hair stuck out in every direction, I stood staring at him for a few more minutes until he finally started talking,  
"Why hello there, female." He said and winked, I raised my eyebrow at him. His accent was South African, I loved it.  
"Caspar, who is it?" Someone yelled down the stairs,  
"It's a girl, Alfie." He yelled back, I frowned,  
"I..think I might I have the wrong house." I mumbled and turned around, walking back towards the street.  
"No wait, girl come back." Caspar called after me,  
"I have a name! It is Isabella!" I exclaimed. He smiled at me, oh god I hadn't initiated a conversation with this guy had I?  
"Well, Isabella, you are looking fine!" He told me, I rolled my eyes and walked back towards him,  
"Well, sweetie, I'm afraid I can't flirt right now, I'm looking for my boyfriend." I snapped. He looked disappointed,  
"If you were looking for your boyfriend why did you come here?" He asked,  
"Look does a guy called Chris live here?" I replied, he nodded, "Okay, well get Chris then."  
"Can't."  
"Why?"  
"He's in the bath."  
"Well let me in then, it's bloody freezing out here!" I told him, he nodded then stepped aside.

I walked in and was hit by a rush of warm air. Directly in front of the door was a steep flight of stairs with doors to either side, Caspar opened one of the doors and led me into the kitchen. There was a fire burning and it was very cosy.  
"So, why are you looking for Chris?" He asked sitting down at the dining table,  
"I need to apologise for last night." I replied, standing in front of the fire and warming my hands.  
"Ooh, did you have a fight?" He asked, "Chris has never mentioned having a girlfriend, Isabella, right."  
"Mhmm"  
"Interesting, he tells us everything,"  
"That's nice."  
"Caspar?" Someone yelled from upstairs,  
"Yes?" He shouted back,  
"Who was at the door?" The voice asked,  
"A girl called Isabella, she was looking for Chris."  
"Where is she now?" Another voice joined in the conversation, I recognised this one, it belonged to my boyfriend. The sound of footsteps running down the stairs accompanied the question and Chris burst into the room wearing only a towel. Caspar calmly raised his arm and pointed at me. I smiled at him.  
"Izzy!" He cried and ran towards me, pulling me into a tight if not slightly damp embrace.  
"Sorry about last night." I mumbled into his chest.  
"It's okay baby, you're here and that's all that matters." He replied.  
"Chris I saw what you did to Finn." I added,  
"He deserved it, that little shit." I pulled away from him,  
"Chris! He's my big brother! And for your information I went round there earlier and we made up." I exclaimed,  
"You saw them before me?" Chris asked sounding hurt, I sighed.  
"Chris, have you ever heard the saying 'Bros before hoes' they are my bros, you are my hoe, sorry but they're gonna come first." I replied sticking my tongue out. He smiled at me,  
"Okay, I forgive you, oh, come here!" He exclaimed pulling me into a hug again.

Another boy appeared in the doorway of the kitchen and was watching me and Chris, I presumed this was the other boy I had heard shouting. I think his name was Alfie. He looked across at Caspar who shrugged back at him.  
"Umm, Chris, who is this?" He asked looking at me through narrowed eyes. Chris let me go and spun around, I peeked around him at Alfie. Alfie was very tall. Alfie looked a little angry at me. Alfie did nothing but stare. Chris must have sensed that I felt a little threatened as he took my hand and pulled me out in front of him, wrapping his arms around my middle and resting his chin on the top of my head, I felt.. safer in his arms.  
"Caspar, Alfie, this, is my beautiful girlfriend Isabella Harries, sister of Jack and Finn."  
"Chris, they don't have a sister." Alfie murmured,  
"Long lost." I blurted, whispering; "Very lost." on the end.  
"But why is she here?" Alfie asked.  
"Alfie! She's my girlfriend, she's allowed to come round!" Chris exclaimed,  
"Hmm." Alfie walked out of the room and back upstairs.

"So, Izzy why did you come over?" Chris asked,  
"We need to talk about something Jack brought up earli-" My phone started to buzz in my pocket, saved by the bell, "Umm, I'll be right back." I said glancing around for a back door, there wasn't one. I sprinted out of the kitchen and into the hall slamming the door after me.  
"Hello?" I asked,  
"Oh hey Iz, look mum's taken a tumble, I think she might have broken her leg or something, we'll be out all night, I'm sorry, but could you maybe stay with Faith again or another friend." Charlie said down the phone to me, or at least that's what I think he said, it was all so quick, "Sorry to be a pain." He added,  
"Oh no, it's fine, I'll stay at a friend's," I told him, "See you tomorrow, give mum my love." I said then hung up, I could tell he was driving from the background noise, I also new of his profound dislike for driving and being on the phone. Charlie was a very strange boy. I walked back into the kitchen. Chris looked at me expectantly,  
"My mum's fallen and Charlie's taking her to hospital, I have to stay over at a friends tonight, but I don't really have any." I frowned, not knowing why I had said mum, I guess after 14 years it was hard not to. Chris grinned at me and I tilted my head to one side, not understanding the reason for the smile.  
"Izzy! You could stay with us tonight!" He exclaimed, I smiled back at him, completely forgetting the subject of the conversation before my phone call.

Many alcoholic drinks and a pizza later the four of us lounged around on the two sofas watching a gory film called something along the lines of 'zombie murder death' or something, that's what the film contained anyway. In my intoxicated state I found the horrific violence quite entertaining. By the time the film had finished and the end credits were rolling up the screen the room was spinning and I felt horribly ill. I was sure I was going to be sick. From what I could see the others were incredibly drunk too, Chris got up to take the disc from the TV and fell onto the floor, he sat there for a minute before sighing and rubbing his head.  
"Time for bed!" He exclaimed, stumbling to his feet and zig-zagging towards me, he scooped me up in his arms and we wobbled up the stairs while I giggled loudly.


	17. Chapter 17

I awoke to the sound of birdsong which drifted in through the open window, bright beams of sunlight, illuminated the unknown room, I remembered nothing from the previous night apart from insane amount of alcohol. I soon became aware of the arm draped around me, for this thing under my head was not a pillow, it was a chest, a bare, male chest. A moment or so later I acknowledged my lack of clothing also. Fuck. No. I didn't did I. Here I was laid in bed with a gorgeous 19 year old and as far as I could tell, we were both naked. Oh god. No. I slid out of bed placing Chris' arm over his stomach and began to pull on any clothes I could find which included most of the clothes I wore the previous day and one of Chris' tops as I could not find my own. I knew it would only be a matter of time before Chris woke up and wanted to know why I was crying. I grabbed my handbag and dashed down the stairs, glancing into the empty kitchen briefly before slipping out the front door and jogging off down the road, the tears streaming down my hot cheeks.

I got to the end of the street and ran across the road, everything I saw was blurry and my head was pounding. I ran for so long that I ended up on my street, I don't know how I got here but, there was the house. Charlie's little car pulled up outside, but his mum wasn't there. Charlie looked up and saw me running towards the house, I must have had blood-shot eyes as well. He jumped out of the car and jogged towards me, frowning.  
"Iz, what's wrong?" He asked as he neared me, this made me cry even harder, I ran into Charlie and wrapped my arms around him, crying hard into his jacket. "Hey, what's wrong Izzy?" He asked again. I couldn't tell him, not out here. I didn't want to tell him I'd lied but I had to. We walked inside and I slumped down on the sofa still crying.  
"I'm so, so sorry, I didn't mean for any of this to happen. I'm sorry." I spluttered, Charlie sat down next to me and placed a cup of tea in my hand,  
"Take your time sweetie." He said sympathetically. After a while I had calmed down and explained everything to him, about going out and meeting Jack and how we had been in contact for a while, about that night when Jack brought Finn and he hit me, about sleeping in the forest that night and finally about Chris, meeting him, dating him then sleeping with him last night. I wasn't even sure if we had done anything but I was frightened of what Jack would say, what Charlie would say.

Charlie took the news quite well actually,  
"So you don't know if you did anything but just fall asleep?" He asked slowly,  
"Exactly," I replied, "God knows what I did last night." I mumbled, scratching the back of my head. "I don't know what to do Charlie."  
"Well first off you need to talk to the guy and ask him because he might know, then you need to refer him to me so we can have.. a chat."  
"But I'm scared, and I can't exactly just go to Chris' house, I left earlier, no note, no nothing." Charlie looked up at the clock thoughtfully,  
"If I drove you, you could get back before they wake up. Would that be better?"  
"Oh yes, thank you Charlie, thank you so much. You're the best brother anyone could hope for!" I exclaimed, putting my tea down. Charlie grabbed his keys and we headed out the door and back to the boys' house.

Charlie's plan worked beautifully. I had just stepped in through the front door when Alfie came down the stairs in his boxers,  
"Where are you going?" He asked,  
"I couldn't find any tea bags so I went out for some but I got lost so I came back again. Sorry, you'll have to go without tea this morning." I replied absent mindedly and walked past him into the kitchen, "Toast?" I asked, rifling through the cupboard and producing a loaf of bread, Alfie yawned while nodding. We both sat down to a piece of buttered toast and were soon joined by Caspar who went to the cupboard and returned with a box if cereal which he sat and ate dry from the box. Alfie stood up and walked over to the cupboard,  
"You are rubbish at looking for things Isabella." He said and pulled a box of tea bags out, I stuck my tongue out and laughed.  
"What can I say, I'm not very thorough." I grabbed the box from his hand and put the kettle on, selecting four brightly coloured mugs from a rack to the left of me.

A pair of arms snaked around my waist, I went all tense, knowing it was Chris but also knowing what we could have done last night. It was like the elephant in the room, or it was until Caspar started talking.  
"You two were loud last night." He said, Chris laughed, I turned to look at Caspar, my eyes wide, he had a silly grin on his face. I looked down, mortified, trying to act normal as I poured the now boiled water into the mugs. My hand started to shake violently and I had to put the kettle down in fear of burning myself.  
"Chris we need to talk. Now." I hissed, grabbing his hand and dragging him out of the room and up the stairs. When we were a safe distance from the others I confronted him, "Chris, look this is serious, did we have sex last night, the thing is, I had so much fucking malibu last night I can't remember a thing."  
"We did yes, why, what's wrong with that?"  
"Oh nothing apart from the fact that if we didn't use protection I could get fucking pregnant!" I screamed at him. He looked down, making himself look small, "Fuck, we didn't did we. Shit what am I going to do know. What's Jack going to think, you know part of the reason for me coming over yesterday was to discuss this, Jack warned me you might try and take advantage of me, and now-"  
"I didn't take advantage of you, you think I would do that, I love you Izzy, you consented, yeah sure we were drunk, it was an accident." I groaned and ran my fingers through my hair,  
"I'm sorry, I'm just annoyed, you could have not, yes we were extremely drunk but you should have been responsible, and what if I do get pregnant and we have a child, what then, I'm 16, you're nearly 20, we will be frowned upon by society, this is going to ruin my life. In my medical condition it would probably kill me to get an abortion, I hope you're fucking happy about that little accident." I yelled throwing my arms up in the air. "What are we gonna do Chris?" I asked quietly,  
"I love you Isabella, we will get through this together, I promise." He whispered in reply.


	18. Chapter 18

5 cups of tea and 17 pregnancy tests later we had established that I in fact was not pregnant. I sat on the bathroom floor leaning back on my arms and surveyed the damage, empty boxes and used tests were strewn around the floor, the others would be getting back soon, I should probably clear up,  
"Chris," I yelled and he stuck his head around the door grinning,  
"You called," He said,  
"Yeah, help me clear the floor before the boys get back and think I actually am pregnant." He sighed but got down on his hands and knees and helped me to pick up all the debris which we put in a plastic bag ready to throw in the outside bin.

I grabbed the last box which had found its way behind the sink. It hadn't been used yet, suddenly a cruel idea popped into my head.  
"Chris," I mumbled, kneeling up and banging my head on the sink. "Shit." I exclaimed, rubbing my forehead. Chris crawled up behind me and stuck his head over my shoulder,  
"Yes dearest?"  
"I just had the best idea ever." I whispered, turning the box over in my hands. "Let's prank Jack and Finn." I said, turning my head to look at his reaction, a cheeky smile was spreading across his face,  
"Yes, let's!" He said enthusiastically,  
"Right, so here's the plan, we need to find a pregnant woman, make her do the test then call Jack and Finn up, inviting them around here for a 'chat' then when they get here I could be like crying and run up to them then show them the test and we see their reactions!"  
"Yes, that's perfect Izzy!" Chris said, laughing a little, he kissed me on the cheek, "I love it." He whispered in my ear then stood up, "I'll ring around my friends see if they know anyone pregnant," he said then walked out of the bathroom.

Luckily enough we didn't have to search far as Caspar's sister was pregnant and she only lived a few streets away.  
"So you're telling me I have to do a pregnancy test so you can prank your brothers?" She asked cautiously, she wasn't too keen on this idea but I nodded enthusiastically. "Right, well, okay," She mumbled and stood up, taking the test off me and walked off to the bathroom. I looked down into my lap, laughing to myself, this would be fun. Maybe we should record their reactions, or would that be too mean? Caspar walked in and looked down at me,  
"You know, you're a horrible sister, my sister would have never done this to me," He told me,  
"That's because you wouldn't have cared!" I said laughing out loud, he tilted his head to one side before replying,  
"I guess you're right," He said, shrugging, "Well I'm fine with it as long as I can watch."  
"Go for it, it'll be happening at your house anyway, you can just sit in the kitchen, front row seating." He smiled back at me, happy with my decision. Caspar's sister returned to the room and handed me the pregnancy test, the little picture at the top was pink, symbolising that the user was pregnant.  
"Thanks." I said, grinning, "Good luck with the baby!" I added before Caspar led me out. The plan was starting to come together.

When we arrived home Chris was sat on the living room floor, in front of him were a selection of films,  
"What are they for?" I asked, walking in and peering over him, there were things like 'Titanic' and 'The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas'  
"The crying, it's not like you can just turn it on," He said, matter of factly.  
"Oh I can, believe me, crying comes surprisingly easy to me." Chris looked around at me, like he didn't believe what I had just said,  
"Go on then, show me." He instructed. I closed my eyes and remembered my friends, I saw us laughing together, then I focused on the image of Maria's face I saw just before I died, my heart ached for them. I had wanted them to be close to me when I died but they were being held from me. A tear slipped from my eye and I had to cover my mouth. I opened my eyes as the tears started to fall, Chris was sat there on the carpet looking concerned. I turned away as I had to lean over as the sadness overcame me. Chris was on his feet immediately, in fact all three boys were, crowding around me. Someone wrapped their arms around me and I threw mine around them and tried to think of nice things, I thought of Emma, her little smiling face. I began to smile and wiped my eyes with the side of my hand and stepped away from them.  
"How did you do that?" Alfie asked,  
"I thought of my friends, the ones I lost when I woke up." I whispered, sniffling, "I told you I could make myself cry!" I exclaimed turning to Chris who opened his arms and I fell into them, he kissed me softly on the lips,  
"Well I can see the DVDs won't be needed." He whispered in my ear and I giggled.

The phone rung twice before Jack picked up, I had been crying for a few seconds and had to really try to speak, I breathed in, and swallowed the lump in my throat,  
"Jack." I said then had to stop, I coughed and sniffed.  
"Izzy, what's wrong, are you crying?!" He said  
"Jack I...I'm sorry." I mumbled then my voice caught and I had to stop again,  
"Iz, what's wrong do you want me to come round?" He asked, I gulped and nodded even though he wouldn't be able to see,  
"Yes, bring Finn, please. Oh Jack, I'm so, so sorry." I groaned,  
"Right, I'll get Finn and be right over, wait where are you?"  
"I..I'm at Chris' house, Jack I'm so sorry." And then he hung up. I shook my head and sniffed.  
"Job done." I said smiling at Chris who sat across from me, I ran to the bathroom and came back with a toilet roll so I could clean myself up before the boys got here. Chris was sat on the bed when I got back and I sat next to him. He wrapped his arms around me, resting the side of his head on mine. I snuggled closer to him then turned my head so our noses were touching. I closed my eyes as Chris kissed me tenderly, I could feel him smiling against me which made me grin. His body swivelled around so he was facing me, one of his hands travelled up the back of my shirt, sending shivers down my spine. I shuffled around too so I was knelt on the bed, I sat back on my heels so we were at the same height. I closed my arms around his neck as we kissed, just then the doorbell rung. I sighed,  
"My brothers, eh," I grumbled before standing up, Chris stood up too and gave me one last kiss before I ran down the stairs, quickly checking in the mirror to see if my eyes were still red, which they were. Perfect.


	19. Chapter 19

I opened the front door, there stood Jack and Finn,  
"Izzy." Jack said, stepping forward. I took a deep breath,  
"Jack, I don't know what to say, I'm so sorry." I whimpered. I stepped away from the door and they both stepped in. I looked down at the floor, like I was ashamed. They both took their shoes off and I walked quickly up the stairs, biting my bottom lip to stop myself from smiling. As I rounded the corner into the room Chris looked up at me and I winked then pulled a sad face again. I sat down on the bed next to Chris who put his arm around my waist protectively as Jack and Finn entered the room and sat on a sofa opposite us.  
"Izzy?" Jack asked, looking up at me, frowning,  
"I don't know how to tell you this." I said, stumbling over my words, I looked up at Chris, and breathed out. I looked down into my lap and began fiddling with my thumbs. Chris sighed and turned around, retrieving the pregnancy test Caspar's sister had done for us. He closed his eyes then handed it to Jack. As Jack's hand grasped hold of the plastic he looked down at his feet then at the test while he held in his hand, he shook his head and sighed before handing it to Finn. Finn looked up at me with a shocked look then at Chris then put the test down on the table next to him. He leaned back against the wall clenching his fists.

"Isabella is this true, are you really...? Pregnant?" Jack asked I sniffed loudly then nodded, not making eye contact with him; it was so hard to keep the sides of my mouth turned down. I think Chris was struggling too as he grabbed hold of my hand, lacing his fingers with mine. "After we spoke at mine, you promised you wouldn't-" He started,  
"Look Jack, what's done is done, but we don't know what to do." Chris butted in.  
"Shut up Chris," Finn hissed, "This is our baby sister we're talking about, if it wasn't for you she could be living her life right now, 16 and pregnant, Iz you have to get rid of it, I'm sorry but you need to grow up before becoming a mother." He said in a soothing voice,  
"That's easy for you to say, but I think an abortion may be.. a little dangerous," I whispered, Jack groaned. "I'm sorry for disappointing you." I said, and then I turned on the water works.  
Chris looked at me desperately, not knowing what to say next, so he turned back to Jack and Finn then shrugged.  
"Izzy we spoke about this, how could you be so reckless." Jack said,  
"I, we, were drunk Jack. It was irresponsible of me I know, but I can learn from my actions." I said, pleading with him, "It was a stupid accident that never should have happened." I said, trailing off as I looked up into Chris' rich brown eyes as he elbowed me in the side. I smiled a little at him, Jack cleared his throat, dragging me out of my dream world. I looked across at him but he was looking at Chris with a look of disgust.  
"Chris how you could do this to someone that age I will never know, you may say you're in love but what happens 12 months down the line when you see another woman, your age, who doesn't have a small child you have to help look after. What happens then, will you leave Izzy?" He said rather pointedly, "And what happens to Izzy in 5 years, young child in school, just turned 21, looking for a job to support that child but she doesn't have enough education because she had to miss college and university."

I frowned at Jack, had he just said I wasn't educated enough to get a job?! "Dude! What the hell!" I exclaimed, they all stopped and looked at me, "Yes, the female does have a voice, and how dare you insult my education, you have no idea what my other life was like." I look a sharp breath in. "And for your information, I am not pregnant, the test was done by Caspar's sister, this was a prank!" I yelled, crossing my arms tightly across my stomach and staring down at the coffee table, feeling slightly peeved.  
"Izzy!" Chris said, turning around to me, "We could have carried that on for so much longer!"  
"Not without you getting punched we couldn't!" I explained to him. We both turned at the same time to look at my brothers, Jack had his eyes narrowed and Finn just looked thoroughly confused. I sighed, I shouldn't take Jack's statement personally,  
"So, you're not pregnant?" Finn said slowly, I shook my head,  
"Nope, not at all! Although we may have done something that would disappoint you Jack, sorry, but it resulted in nothing." I said blushing.

The two sat there for a moment like their brain cogs were working a bit slow then seemed to come around to the fact that I wasn't pregnant and it was a joke. I looked up at Chris,  
"Good work partner," I said and winked, he chuckled to himself then leaned forward and whispered in my ear,  
"Next time we'll be sure to use protection." Then moved away so I could see his expression, he winked too. I shoved him and started to laugh really hard.  
"Oh yeah great joke guys." Jack said sternly, Finn however appeared to find the prank quite entertaining, or it may have just been the relief of not having to face the fact that his kid sister had been knocked up by someone his age. I smiled to myself, the plan had worked. Maybe I should take up drama in college that would be fun.  
"Well, seen as this isn't an emergency, we should probably get going, got a lot of university work to do." Jack said, excusing himself, he stood up followed by Finn who turned around and waved at me, I waved back before jumping up and giving them both hugs. "Just don't do this again, and if you lay a finger on my sister again Chris, I will kill you." I nodded, smiling a little to myself.  
"See you soon boys!" I called as they walked out the front door. I went back up to Chris' bedroom where it appeared he was waiting for me.  
"So," He said, "Where were we?" He grinned up at me then stood up and walked slowly towards me. His lips pressed hard against mine and his hand rested on my bum. It felt really weird but I kind of liked it. His other hand rubbed up and down my back, pushing me towards him. You can tell he had had quite a few girlfriends over the years and perfected his kissing and grabbing of various body parts techniques. But what did I know, my first kiss was with an imaginary boy in Starbucks a few months ago, it's not like I was a professional. And I wasn't going to start complaining when I could experience this any day of the week. I suddenly pulled away from Chris, but who had I shared my first kiss with, I had forgotten his name, how could I have forgotten his name. I racked my brains from his name. He was my first love. Adrian, why did it take me so long to remember that, I couldn't just forget him. I had found myself think less of Adrian and more of Chris these past few weeks, and now I forget his name.  
"Chris, I have to go, sorry, I have the worst headache ever. Sorry." I stuttered, walking out of the room and dashing down the stairs, "I'll call you," I shouted after myself, making sure Chris heard. I opened the door and slammed it behind me then started the long walk home, thinking about Adrian and my friends, I can't let myself forget them, they were my life, and they weren't going to get away that easily.


	20. Chapter 20

"Isabel?" I heard Charlie's mum call up the stairs. I rolled over in bed and looked at my alarm clock, it was late morning, my eyes still felt sore from crying last night, I can't believe I forgot him...  
"Iz? Are you up?" She asked again,  
"Yeah I'm up what is it?" I replied, still half asleep.  
"Could you check if Charlie's already left please." She said, I sighed then rolled out of bed and stalked across the landing to Charlie's room and knocked firmly on his door, there was no reply so I cautiously pushed on the door and it gently swung open a little, revealing Charlie's exquisitely made bed.  
"He's not up here," I called back, waiting for her reply,  
"Oh, he must have left his lanyard with all his keys on here then, could you be a dear and take it up to the clinic for me, I'm busy all day with my sisters,"  
"Sure, give me an hour and I'll take it up." I answered sweetly, but inside I was groaning, I walked into the bathroom and locked the door behind me. I peeled off my pyjamas and turned on the power shower.

After washing and getting dressed I descended the stairs and picked up the collection of keys and ID cards,  
"I'll be back soon, I might go to a friends house or something afterwards, text me when you want me home. Bye!" I said directing my voice towards the kitchen where she sat reading the newspaper, she waved absent mindedly at me as I stepped out of the front door and into the quiet street

"Hey Esther," I waved at the girl sat behind the main desk of the clinic, "Where do you think you're going?" She asked, raising an eyebrow,  
"I just need need to find Charlie and give him his keys and stuff," She looked at me for a short while then sighed,  
"Okay but be quick, I shouldn't be letting anyone in!" She exclaimed, winking at me then pressing a button on the side of her desk which released the door seals,  
"Cheers!" I grinned at her.

It was deathly quiet in the corridor, I couldn't see any doctors, nurses or Charlie anywhere, choosing another corridor I found myself getting a bit lost, this place was more like a maze.  
"Charlie?" I called, my voice echoed off the white washed walls. I recognised this corridor a bit, from when I first woke up, tiptoeing up to one of the tiny circular windows on one of the doors I peeked through, this room was empty, maybe it used to be mine, I can't really remember that much. A little further down the corridor was another identical door with the same tiny window. I crept towards it, checking behind me in case someone spotted me. I glanced through the window. My eyes widened and I felt sick yet excited all at the same time, I couldn't tear my eyes away from the contents of this room. Shakily my hand slid down to the door handle and pushed it down hoping it would be locked and I could walk away and forget all about this, but no, the door handle slid down and the door moved a little under my weight. I breathed deeply as butterflies danced in my stomach. My hand still gripped the handle and without thinking I thrust the door away from me and it clattered into the wall behind.

I stumbled into the room, leaving the door wide open behind me. Why hadn't Charlie told me, oh my God. Hesitantly I shuffled closer the bed, I covered my mouth with my hand and shook my head, it couldn't be but it was. I had forgotten but now I would never forget again, as before me on a crisp white hospital bed lay the boy of my dreams, literally. Adrian.


End file.
